Spanish Tour Spring 2011 Blog

[delorentos]

Thursday 21st April.
Day 1
Sala BNS, Santander.

I woke up on Thursday after a night tossing and turning worrying about the album. Was it ready? Why are we going on tour when there’s work to be done? Should we fill the set with new songs? Will people baulk at the difference of the new stuff? Is it actually as different as we think it is? On Tuesday The Lovely Brian – our driver, stage tech and amateur philosopher – had left Dublin in the van; meaning we hadn’t done the extra bit of practice that would’ve calmed my mind. I resolved not to allow anyone know that I was having a minor panic attack.

As we were waiting for the flight I listened back to the tracks while still mildly freaking out, while wearing an expression of happy confusion. I had hoped to project a sunny expression, but my facial muscles panicked and so resulted in a limbo state of confused surprise.

Thankfully, on the flight I settled on grumpy hunger. This being a fairly usual feeling, I focused on our plan ahead and persevered through my last cup of tea for 11 days and an extra large twix. This tour of Spain is our biggest yet, and It comprises 6 gigs and a Covers night in 11 days, with 3 days off in Madrid in the middle over Easter. It would normally be pretty exciting, only that few days afterwards we return and start pre-production on our third album. This being a critical time, nerves are frayed and moods are jumpy. We’ve also not really played a gig since last year.

When we arrive in Santander airport The Lovely Brian enthusiastically welcomes us. Surviving on nothing but Tayto and almond fingers for two days, The Lovely Brian is in excitable form and we head for the beach-side venue, Sala BNS. After a decent soundcheck where we practice two new songs - with Ross playing simultaneous drums and keyboard – we head up for some tiny beers and paella. Tiny beers and Paella could be the subtitle of this blog, incidentally. It won’t be, though. It’ll just be Aaaaaagh!

After a quick rest in the massive hotel, we head back for pre-gig tapas, where the final dish is baby eels and mushrooms. They’re very expensive apparently. Bleurg, I say. Nial and me get some more paella. The waitress seemed confused. I guess it’s like getting garlic bread after your steak.

After the support band played – Cyan, whose singer looked really like Cesc Fabregas - we set up and the crowd filed in from the smoking area overlooking the sea. We play gigs really late over here, crowds don’t go to venues until midnight, and we are still playing at the time of night we would be normally be hurtling home in the van. The gig was great, the new songs were pretty good and the atmosphere was really happy and welcoming. If all the gigs are like that then we’ll be delighted. We drank some more tiny beers and got to bed around 4. I resumed my mild freaking out, at least glad we can still play decent gigs.

K

[delorentos]

Friday 22nd April
Day 2
Polifonik Sound Festival, Barbastro.

We woke early after about 4 hours sleep, with The Lovely Brian eager to start the 4 hour journey north east to Barbastro. We all groggily filed down to the buffet, ate some weird eggs, had no tea, then left. We thought breakfast was included – it wasn’t, and 18 euros later we were all pretty annoyed. Money is fairly tight for all of us, what with saving for recording and having been away from the steady flow of gigs… I could’ve done with a croissant instead.

Anyway, we jumped in the van and headed off to the Aragon region. In the van, Everyone has a little chat for the first bit, then quickly settles into whatever distractions suit, I’m reading, Ross and Ro are listening to tunes, and Níal’s asleep. I can’t snooze so am doomed to half-awake daydreaming and looking out the window at the speeding hilly countryside.

When we arrive at Polifonik Sound we meet Gouj (he travels to the gigs alone, no-one knows how) and quickly load – we’re a little late – and go swiftly through the soundcheck. Times like this I wish I spoke more Spanish – I swear I’m trying – as the soundmen and stage hands don’t understand my animated pointing. Afterwards we head back to the hotel for some rest. The guide book says the town of Barbastro is a “bit run-down” but it seemed drowsy and nice. Across from The Lovely Brian’s room a man was protesting about the traditional Christian parade by playing his guitar noisily and trying to be as loud as possible, Brian joined in by cheering him as loudly as possible. Myself and Ro went down to watch strange spectacle of sinister groups of hoods playing drums and marching through the town. Europeans always love a good rally, I say.

Anyway we headed back to the venue, a huge warehouse which is usually a convention centre, for a meet and greet with the other bands and the friendly organisers. As we’ve no Spanish we didn’t do much greeting, but there was tapas and wine. The tapas turned out to be baby eels again. “They’re very expensive” said someone. The organisers are warm and lively, but I just nodded politely at everyone like a moron. Our affable Spanish agent Sebastian was there too and we sat and shared a lovely lamb stew.

After a sneaky hours’ kip, I resurfaced around midnight and we mooched about with some tiny beers and took in the event ‘til we played.

Onstage, the sound was very separated, like listening to a distant cd, and so it took us a couple of songs to get into it, but eventually the subdued audience capitulated and came with us. They seem to know a few songs too which helps.
Afterwards we did a meet and greet that suited us more, standing at the bar chatting to people about guitars and stuff. By the time I got to bed I’d forgotten all about the worries of the previous day and was enjoying being back playing gigs. Maybe a tour like this is exactly what we need.

K

[Yvvan]

hey! you were fantastic on saturday night at Salamandra. I've discovered you in Benicassim (Rónan in the song Stop left me touch his guitar lol) and I'm in love with your music. New songs sounds good and I will repeat to see you in Razzmatazz. Good luck Delorentos!!!!

[Ricardo Ponce]

I was in Barbastro and I loved your concert. The sound was terrific but it was not you fault, the sound crew was a bit creepy.

Keep on rocking, you rules!

[delorentos]

Saturday 23rd April
Day 3
Sala Salamadra, Hospitalet, Cataluna

Last night (like every night so far) was a late one. We stayed behind to watch a great Spanish band called We Are Standard, that reminded me of “!!!”. Ross and myself found our way back to our hotel through the streets of Barbastro, which by now were empty of hooded Christian fundamentalists. We did our best to wake up Gouj by jumping around and making noise (successful) and I went back to my room to wake up Brian (unsuccessful). The next morning our groggy states were shaken off by a walk through the book and flower stalls of the town and a breakfast of delorentos tapas (the city’s bars have created tapas for each of the bands playing at the festival, ours is a tomato, mixed with eggplant and parmesan, amazing).

We left for Cataluña, after picking up the gear at the now empty hall –it’s strange being in venues before or after gigs, especially after such a huge gig like last night. The drive to L'Hospitalet de Llobregat was uneventful; we enjoyed the rolling hills and dusty landscapes with the usual pointing and arguing, as we got closer to the venue and hotel.

I was greeted with a phone call to say one of my best friends has just got engaged. It’s strange being on tour and hearing about these things second-hand. Everyone is so caught up with this album; we’ve been working so hard on it. But you can often forget in the whirlwind of touring and writing songs, that you may be at the centre of your storm, but you are not the centre of the universe. Life goes on without you. That feeling has been a big part of this album, seeing friends move on and in some cases move country, even bands we know are struggling to survive or have given up altogether. I think one of the benefits of having the band fall to pieces and split up is that now we are a better band. When the worst has already happened then you can move on with a clear head, we are doing this for the right reasons.

I remember last time we were in Spain we met Johnny Marr at a festival, Kieran reminded him of a quote of his, that he wished he wrote more songs when he was younger, because that drive and enthusiasm won’t always be there. And that, in many ways, is what keeps you going when you travel for hours in a van after little or no sleep. When you set up in the next town and play your heart out, and leave everything you have left on the stage. We may never be in this position again; life may move us on from this as it has done to many of our friends. In the meantime we have to work hard on everything we do, make sure its as good as it could possibly be, and enjoy it. It also helps that it’s sunny.

The gig, like a lot of European gigs, was run like clockwork. Great stage hands and the lady that ran the venue took no shit from anyone, including herself. We were worried the streets were deserted, that there would be no crowd. When the curtain rose, we got a nice surprise to see the venue had filled out with a crowd that was ready to dance and cheer and get into our set. Almost everywhere was closed when we finished, and we were told that we could make it to an Italian restaurant, we jumped at the chance. So today we take a break from jellied eels and fried calamari, although we still managed to order raisin pizzas, a barrel full of starters and generally too much of everything. The club went on till 6 am, and we loaded our van on the streets as people hung around their cars, with the windows down and music playing. Outside every nightclub in Spain has been like a festival in that way, with people loading up on beers and listening to tunes before they head in to the club at 2 or 3 am. For us, its time to close the van doors and hit the road, next stop Madrid.

Níal

[delorentos]

Sunday 24th April
Day 4
la impulsión larga!

Post gig, we tried in vain to find a late night bar near our industrial estate hotel.

Maybe this was just as well, as on forcing my eyes open this morning after five hours sleep, I met the rest of the band and our Brian downstairs and we all stared down the barrel of the long drive from Barcelona to Madrid.

Ordinarily this wouldn’t be the most fun six hours of ones life, but coupled with bank holiday traffic, we were in for a truly epic ride.
Things started out (as they often do in delorentos) with some good natured sing-song, as our Brian circled the roundabout just outside the hotel and we intelligently accompanied him with a resounding chorus of “roundabout...roundabout”, thrilling stuff.
It took a little while to get on the road to Madrid (via Zaragoza), but when we joined the snaking traffic we knew we were on to a winner. We listened to some Sunday morning Reggae and chatted about the previous night, before as usual reverting to our own devices.

In my case, this mostly involves staring out the window and spacing out. The vast desert landscape, mountain ranges and open skies are great for this. At one point I see a massive bull on the horizon. Everyone gets excited at the sight of this solitary solemn beast on the hilltop, but it turns out to be made of cardboard. Not for the first time in my life, I’ve been deceived...

I started reading “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac before heading on our trip. As pretentious as this clearly sounds, the book is proving a great travel companion. I’m enjoying adventuring in tandem and imagining the lead character “Sal” cruising American highways as we traverse the dusty Spanish ones.

Listened to Julian Casablancas’ solo album, “Phrases for the Young”. I’m a long time Strokes fan and was blown away to find us sharing a bus with him on the way to the Benicassim festival in Valencia. He’d just released the record and I hadn’t heard it, so I mostly just gawped like a fool and told him how influential he has been for me (wince....) Safe to say if I were to meet him this week I’d congratulate him on another triumph, as he’s blended simple honest lyrics with crazy souped up electronic mayhem to create some more moments where I think “Wow, that’s exactly how I feel....but in a more electronic way”.

Eight hours later, having dropped Gouj off at the airport (he has other needy souls to help too you know), we circled the backstreets of Madrid looking for the apartment we’re to stay in for the next five days. The narrow roads are thronged with people as its Easter Sunday and they don’t appreciate us reversing, stopping, moving forward, stopping, reversing again....in our massive van.

Approximately ten hours since we left Barcelona and nearly at the demise of our hero Brian, we gained access to the apartment. It’s very nice. After a quick celebratory beer to calm fraught nerves we settled down to some well earned rest.

Ró

[delorentos]

If you like to have a look at the photo blog on facebook the link is here: on.fb.me/maMA0O



K

[klaartje]

It all looks rather nice, boys.

Any chance you'll visit me and my fellow Dutchmen again (soon-ish)?

[delorentos]

Monday 25th, Tuesday 26th
Day 5+6, Madrid

After about 10 hours sleep (10 hours!) I got up and had some cornflakes. There’s weird milk in Spain. I also had no tea and tried not wake anyone up. You can fight like cats and dogs in a band and it is generally fine, but mess with someone’s sleep and you’re in trouble.

The Lovely Brian woke up, drunk on rest, after having 10 hours for the first time in years. Being a father of two and a dedicated van driver does not add up to much sleep so he was running around like a wild man, experiencing smells and colours he hadn’t in years.

We haven’t really seen the city, so after a shower we headed down to a Basque tapas bar around midday where we had a breakfast and beers and then we walked around the busy city for a few hours in the sun. Lots of metrosexual shops in Madrid… and lots of reggae record stores.

In the Afternoon we sat down in the apartment to Practice. With the amps on low and the Drums covered in towels we tentatively began learning to play our Smiths covers for the Tribute gig on Wednesday. We’d been so busy at home that we hadn’t had time to practice any of the songs, so by the time we got here all the most popular ones had been taken and we had to dig through the rest. We decided to do “What difference does it make”, one of the first singles, and “Shoplifters of the world unite”, one of the last. Both are brilliant pop songs with dark meanings, Summing up the Smiths pretty well…

After a few hours’ work (and a knock on the door from a tiny little old lady) we felt we were beginning to get somewhere so we took a break for some tiny beers and a walk around again. There’s loads of fly-posters for our tour stuck on walls and windows all over this area which is encouraging. Our gig in Madrid on Thursday is in a great venue… Sala Sol, and I hope we can get a crowd. It’s a kind of leap of faith on behalf of our agent over here, but so far it’s been going really well… It’s important to feel like you’re improving as a band... and maybe getting somewhere!

That night we went out til pretty late, and so we got out of bed on Tuesday even later. At lunchtime we met with Sebastian and our Swiss soundman Fabrizio. Over amazing Mexican food Fabrizio told us stories of his time touring with Amy Winehouse and Gorillaz and loads of other fine acts while effortlessly skipping between perfect Spanish and a broad London accent. We got to know each other pretty well and he promised to take us out later and show us some of Madrid.

We have promo over the next few days, so we headed back to the Apartment to practice the Smiths’ covers and a few Acoustic songs. We’ve decided to start playing acoustic versions of brand new songs and they sounded pretty good. After a few hours we were tired and more satisfied, so we headed out with Fabrizio and he walked us through the sights of Madrid. We walked charming streets, past winking prostitutes and striking statues, through huge ornate squares, down quaint lanes and finally to his favourite little bar, where we got tapas and tiny beers and watched a football match and chatted enthusiastically about music.

The rest of the night became fuzzy… and as the morning approached we stumbled back the same route with red eyes, ready for the second half of the tour.

K

[Radon]

Hola, chicos. Nice show yesterday in Sol. I had lot of fun. Let me ask you, which one was the cover you played among the crowd?

[Kier]

It was our new song, Bullet in a Gun. We WERE going to do a cover, but we decided to just do a new one...

K

[delorentos]

Wednesday 26th
Day 7
Smiths Tribute night, Madrid

After a cold shower to wake us up we headed off to a local Tapas Bar for a video Interview with a Spanish Internet TV show. After some goofy answering while eating Croissants we went straight to the Joy Eslava Venue to set-up. The venue tonight is cool, like a modernised Victorian Theatre, and we’re glad to get a soundcheck. We thought we’d have to just walk on to the stage and hope it all came together… it’s good to test yourself, I guess. Sometimes I’d prefer a simple life though.

In the early hours of last night Nial and Brian met the local dudes who were fly-postering for the Tribute night. They seem to have an out-of-sight policy with the police… they aren’t too strict, if the poster people keep out of their way… Anyway we got a couple glossy ones from them, they’re stuck everywhere here. We try to keep stuff like that…

Anyway the check went well and afterwards the lovely Brian and myself took a metro ride to the van to get some gear, walking slowly through the park talking about the nature of the band life. When we got there we found the stuff we needed was, frustratingly, back in the apartment. Sums up the band life pretty well I thought.  Still, it was nice to have a chat and a stroll…
After an afternoon doing our own thing we headed back to the venue where we set up for a street performance of a brand new song, “Bullet in a gun” for a video blog called Eldeantamano. Well, I think that’s what the song is called, for now anyway. We sat outside the venue and played the song as stripped back as possible, just acoustic, lots of singing and lots of percussion, banging on guitar cases and the wall and anything that made noise. We gathered a crowd of curious onlookers and after two takes recorded it. It’s good crack doing things that way… keeps things interesting for us too. Brian got a lovely shot of an accordionist serenading local couples at next doors’ Café then panning to us starting the song.

After, we went to a “Té” café (and asked for some tea, which turned out to be not tea) we got some food and wandered around. The Real Madrid v Barcelona Champions league match was on in the city, and so we meet groups of singing fans and wonder whether anyone will actually go to the gig!

When we finally get to the venue there’s thankfully a good crowd and we set up, watch the other acts and hang around backstage. The Soundmen at the desk are watching the match on a little telly, as are the production assistants backstage and the barstaff. I wondered why we had gotten such a good set time – second last – it’s the last 15 mins of the match! Lots of the other acts were acoustic, so I hoped the full band versions would work in our favour… we came out to a great response and we played both songs the best we’d done them, a perfect combination of fear and practice… and enjoyed it. It was a release for me personally, cos I previously couldn’t seem to get the words to stick in my head. Good man Morrissey.

Afterwards we hung around talking to the other bands and raiding the rider while the lovely Brian floated around taking photos. As a result there’s a photo trail beginning happily in the venue and ending in a side-street bar wearing giant novelty sunglasses…

K

[delorentos]

Thursday 28th April.
Day 8
Sala El Sol, Madrid.

Today we woke up grumpy and tired. We’ve rehearsed a lot over the past two days for the Smiths gig and for Spanish blog eldeantemano.com. The relief of pulling off a new acoustic song in the streets outside Joy Eslava and our own versions of the Smiths songs has given way to strong hangovers. Last night resulted in novelty glasses, dancing and not a lot of sleep. On the way home, I caught someone trying to pick my pocket, he slunk away down a side street without my wallet or phone.

The morning started with an interview for US/Spanish magazine Humanize. We met Clara down the back of a cool little café and talked for over an hour. We’re trying to be more open during interviews, and the conversation was exactly what we needed. She was pleasant and funny and we came out of ourselves with some coffees and anecdotes. We talked about her friends Vampire Weekend and the city of Chicago where she’s from (and were I lived for a while), this is part of touring that I really enjoy: meeting new people with interesting stories to share.

Next up was the Soundcheck for tonight’s gig in Madrid. The venue was underground just off the main square for prostitutes, and we had to haul all of our gear (4 amps, drum kit, 8 guitars, keyboards) down 30 steps to setup. Tonight is Fabrizio’s first gig with us –he controls the sound from his laptop, which means he can move around the venue to make sure it sounds good from almost anywhere.

We recently spent a week writing songs in a Wicklow farmhouse, and every morning (and some evenings) Ro and myself ran around the hills nearby to clear the cobwebs. We have been reading a book called ‘Born to Run’, which essentially suggests that humans evolved from centuries of running, and that natural running it is part of what drives us. So, after the soundcheck as the heat began to rise we ran on the streets of Madrid and on to a nearby park to clear our heads before tonight’s gig.

We arrived early to the venue to see that there were 3 people there. It was pretty disheartening as we went downstairs to wait in our backstage room. We were told the time had changed for the gig so down in or bunker we waited, and tried to stay motivated.

By the time we were called up the stairs and pushed through the curtain onstage there was a huge throng of people in the venue. I keep forgetting that crowds come to gigs much later here in Spain than they do in Ireland.

The next couple of hours passed by in a blur, I know there was a full room of people dancing, and we played our hearts out. People were singing words along with us and a guy stood up onstage, to join in (Brian came out and gave him a big hug). We did an encore, walking in to the crowd and performing the acoustic version of bullet in a gun that we did for eldeantemano.

I came offstage with a bruised hip and a swelling hand, and a sense that it may have been one of our best gigs ever.

We hung around afterwards to meet some of the crowd and have a drink, there were a couple of Irish lads there, as well as people that had seen us the last time we came here. It is both sad and great to meet so many Irish people abroad, its great to hear familiar voices and share a bit of craic, but also sad to see so many people our own age forced out of the country to get jobs.

We finished of the evening with Sebastian in a nearby bar, and despite being drenched by road sweepers washing the roads we went home happy. Tomorrow we leave Madrid to go back to Cataluña, the tour rolls on.

Níal

[Aisling]

[Podge]

I REFUSE to watch them! Call me crazy but prefer to wait for the official release of the new tunes. I love going to shop and buying a new album and listening to it for the first time. Nothing like it!

Unless I've heard the new songs at a gig or they've been officially released I REFUSE to listen. That's jsut me though.. I'm crazy

Good blog lads. Sounds/looks like ye're having a blast. Great that things are happening abroad for ye! That documentary you mentioned with ye playing Bullet in a gun on the street, are ye a big part of that docu or just a small part in it?